the living room corral-er: a how-to.

So there was this point in the middle of our living room revamp, where I decided that maybe there was no reason for the giant bowl-o-moss-balls that had been sitting there for a year.

That I was over it already.

Nothing against moss balls. Moss balls are the best. Mine had just been sitting there for four years. But maybe…just maybe…if one of our oh-so-beloved offspring, or that of the visiting variety, picked one up and threw it across the room, scattering a bazillion pointless moss ball pieces into sheer oblivion, one more time…I just may lose it.

In short, I was ready for something super functional, but I wasn’t sure what. I was sitting in the middle of Disney World a few weeks ago during nap time in the room, when it was quiet with the kids…and this popped into my head.

I’m not really sure what you call it. A bin? A crate? A thing? I get ideas for things all the time. I’m kind of useless like that. So I decided to scratch it down and put it together when we got back.

All I knew, was that I was sick and tired of walking into the room to start up 90210 Uh, I mean Design Star, and my plans were foiled once again, by the lost remote. So, I designed this little crate, to sit atop our gargantuan coffee table. With a nice contrast of natural materials and stained wood, attractive meets functional. It corrals the remote, all my latest reads…and the occasional rando floral arrangement if I feel so inclined.

This piece measures a generous 25.5 x 25.5, so you could adjust yours accordingly. But for ours, we gathered the necessary amount of cut 1 x 2’s, {27 pieces for this project, total.} And got to work.

First things first, we lined 16 of the already cut pieces down on the floor, placing them in the shape of a square. {at 24″ long} We made sure that they were actually squared, by bracing them against both the wall and a side board for support. Holding it steady, we then used two more pieces, and placed them on top, hammering each one down as we went.

Helpful hint: it helped to steady each board with double nail-age {Not a word. Roll with it.} to keep it from turning wonky when we moved it. The boards tented to rotate a bit with only one nail, so we went back and adjusted accordingly.

One of my favorite stain colors is Minwax’s Early American. But my favorite part of this piece was going back and adding some additional layers of stain, after that first official pass. It gave the boards a simple varied look, and I was immediately in love with the color and affect.

In that process, I also stained four additional pieces of 1 x 2’s cut to a slightly larger length. 2 were 25.5, and 2 were 24. They fit like little puzzle pieces around the already existing square, and once they were dry, we simply hammered them on to the sides, but turned sideways. Doing this covered up the “supportive beams” underneath, and gave the centerpiece a more “boxed” and finished look.

In the meantime, I took four more pieces of unstained wood, {25.5 (2) + 24(2)} and some natural jute that we scored from the local home improvement store. With my fave tool handy {the glue gun} I simply wrapped each piece tightly, and secured each end with a glue gun.

We cut one more piece of 1 x 2, into equal 2.5 inch pieces. We simply joined them to the top with a drill from underneath. These sat in each corner, and would serve as supports for the jute wrapped pieces.

We joined each piece to each corner, again, alternating the sizes and fitting each one together like a jigsaw puzzle, by using the drill.

Tada! Remote gremlins be gone!

Retrospect notes via Jamin: {Since we made this up and did it on the fly} we should have jigged out each corner, and run each post all the way through to the bottom. It would have given it a more seamless look, but I also don’t mind this one. The jute wrapped boards hide any imperfections well.

A one of a kind tray/crate/box/corraler/magazine thingy for our gargantuan coffee table. For around 35 dollars, + stain…we were happy with the end result!

Of course you can……it’s super simple. Also as always if you don’t have a saw or don’t want to bother with one, the guys or gals at the local home depot will cut all the pieces for you. Just take the measurements to them. With them cutting all you have to do is out it together! Have fun!